[RELEASED] Force Of Nature : Weather and Nature system

Already in the Asset store!

http://www.assetstore.unity3d.com/en/#!/content/30796

What is Force Of Nature?

Dynamic weather system

It is a fast weather and nature system so that you can just put it in your Unity® game and see as weather changes dynamically, this includes sun and moon rotation and moon phases, procedural shader clouds changing in a realistic way from empty sky to overcast, you can define how weather reacts to the four seasons of the year in game and set the day and seasons duration.

Cloud speed and cloud density can be changed in this package, for the videos the speed was increased. Also the day and seasons duration can be changed among many other features that can see below in the full list of features.

Using Clouds, Sky and Stars makes the game very few frames slower, this package will not make your game slow, it will depend on how slow is your game itself, the number of meshes, graphics quality, scripts, number of lights, etc...

There is also the option to enable realtime cloud shadows, everytime the Sun is blocked by clouds you will see the according shadows over anything below

Clouds have real transparency which means that using Sun Shafts the sun shafts will be blocked by clouds and will let them pass where there are not clouds creating like that very realistic and awesome results




Static weather

You have the option so that weather can be saved so that continues changing the next time you play the game, save the shape/position of your clouds, sun, moon, etc..
If you want to have just a static weather you have also the option to make clouds static, or sun or moon, or fog, and even if you see some cloud shape and position you like and use that shape/position to stay static in the sky so there is no need to buy skyboxes, you will have iunlimited skyboxes, just choose a moment in the cloud evolution and use it!


Realistic Sun

Awesome Sun and Sky shader made and not just a simple skybox. You can customize how you want that your Sun and Sky looks.




Awesome dusk and dawn

You can customize how will look your dawn/dusk color, intensity, timing.






Realistic nature

Create realistic nature system to render awesome woods even in big landscapes. It uses a normal map terrain shader and billboard or mesh trees and grass shader.

Make trees blend in a realistic way and make the fade between mesh and billboard trees almost unnoticed



Normal mapped terrains




Dynamic fog

Fog is very realistic and transitions are made at the speed you configure, you can use it to give a nice creepy atmosphere to your game.

Force Of Nature use a custom shader fog.




Realistic lighting

Set the illumination evolution along the day precisely so you can choose to have for instance a pitch black night or a more illuminated one.

Use not just general fog but also fog height fog. Lights can be customized to fade in distance exactly as you wish.





Realist spot and point lights




Moon phases, Halo and twinkling stars

Moon phases can be configured to change over time or remain static and halo intensity changes depending on the moon phase and the configured intensity.

Twinkling stars, which can have its speed and intensity configured. You can set the quantity of stars visible on sky.





Wind

Wind sound intensity changes as cloud density changes, so that with overcast clouds there is a more intense wind and wind sound and also can be configured how exactly that sound changes.

Wind can be configured to remain static or rotating randomly over time depending on the configured settings like speed, magnitude and frenquency maing clouds move in the same direction as wind.

Define how trees and grass react to wind in a realist way.

Billboards

There are tree and grass billboard shaders. Also tree billbards do not bend towards player as happens with default tree billboard shader which made the billboards useless at near distances.
The fade transitions between normal and billboard trees can be configured so that are almost unnoticed, a really big improvement compared to as it is with Unity by default

Small size

Also is very small in size, around 7mb uncompressed, a big advantage to keep your game small and avoid users quit downloading your game. Other systems need to use packages really much bigger, Force Of Nature is a fast, small and realist weather and nature system.

Rain/Snow particle full and extensive system will be added in near future

A full package for rain will be added including support for spot and point lights illuminating those rain particles so you can create awesome scenes in your game. Wind will move the rain particles horizontally, so rain and snow particles will change their angle depending on wind direction and intensity.

Will keep being updated

Other packages quit leaving users without support and updates anymore. I like what i do and i have the motivation to keep updating a system to be even more perfect that was before

Performance comparision

The videos were made with an old laptop with a graphic card with 320 gflops (a way to measure a graphics card performance), top smartphones get more than 650 gflops! according to http://kyokojap.myweb.hinet.net/gpu_gflops/

Fast support


Feedback and questions are welcome

The Documentation with all features :

Player prefs

• Save/load player prefs : Player prefs save all needed changing data like cloud movement, density, sun angle, etc... so that when game starts again it has the same look as the last time it was played, ignoring the settings in the Manager for the values saved
• Delete player prefs : In case you want a fresh start using the values set in the editor and not the ones saved in previous game sessions. You usually should delete them before making the build

Sun

• Static Sun : If enabled the Sun will not translate in the sky
• Sun angle : Sets the starting Sun angle. 0 is the sun in the horizon and 180 the same but in the other side. From 180 to 359 degrees day will be night smoohtly. To choose where the Sun will appear in the horizon just change the EarthCenterSun Y rotation angle.
• Sun light intensity : Sun light intensity base which is used to calculate final sun intensity which changes as sun gets near the horizon
• Journey time : How much time in seconds Sun takes to make 360 degrees. A higher number will make Sun and Moon slower in its translation.
• Start angle : Angle used for sun maximum intensity. For example if set to 30 degrees, means that from 30 degrees up to 150 degrees Sun has its maximum intensity.
• End angle : Angle used for sun minimum intensity. For examples if set to -30 degrees, means that from 210 to 330 degrees Sun will have its minimum intensity.
• Sun distance : Sun distance added to the width of the cloud dome to calculate Sun final position
• To red aura color ground : Color modifier of the dawn/dusk color to go to a reddish color to the end. It defines the minimum color of Red, Green and Blue

Moon

• Static moon : If enabled moon will not translate in the sky
• Static moon light : If enabled moon phases won't change
• Halo color : Color of halo around the Moon/li>
• Moon light color : Moon color around the clouds with full moon
• Base Moon light color : Moon light color around the clouds with darkest moon
• Moon light ground color : Moon light color on ground
• Moon size
• Moon angle : Sets the starting Moon angle. 0 is the moon in the horizon and 180 the same but in the other side.To choose where the Moon will appear in the horizon just change the EarthCenterMoon Y rotation angle
• Moon orbit : Sets the orbit vector of the moon around the Earth. Change the Y value to set the moon in a lower or higher orbit. If you wish the moon in the other side of the sky change the value to a positive number.
• Min moon light angle : Minimum moon light angle
• Moon light angle : Moon light sky color intensity","The intensity of the moon light in the sky/li>
• Moon growth : How much moon size is multiplied as gets nearer to the horizon.
• Moon halo intensity : Intensity of the halo around the Moon

Sky

• Sun aura value(Kr) : . A higher value will make the sky more orange and the sun more yellow near the dusk/dawn.Min value will be set at dawn/dusk, and will increase to max as sun gets more intensity.
• Sun size(Km) : Min value will be set at dawn/dusk, and will increase to max as sun gets more intensity. It is important to set this right or Sun could be too small. A good value would be around 0.002 for X value and 0.01 for Y value
  
• Sun brightness(ESun) : A higher value will make the sun bigger and brighter.Min value will be set at dawn/dusk, and will increase to max as sun gets more intensity.
• Sun focus(G) : Values from -0.99 to 0.99 range. A higher value means a higher diffumination.Min value will be set at dawn/dusk, and will increase to max as sun gets more intensity.
• Exposure : Modifies sky brightness.Min value will be set at dawn/dusk, and will increase to max as sun gets more intensity.
• Sun wave length : Wave length of sun light
• Inner radius : Will set SkyDome Y position. The difference between the inner and outher position will be used by the shader to calculate the sky.
• Outer radius : Will set the size of the SkyDome
• Rayleigh Scale Depth : Used to calculate the altitude at which the atmosphere's average density is found.

Clouds

• Cloud density : . Set cloud density in the sky
• Clouds change frequency : How easy is that cloud density change. It is used for bigger and less frequent cloud density changes so that is easier that there are sunny and cloud days in any season
• No wait Clouds change frequency : How easy is that cloud density change without waiting for another change to finish.If successful this value will overwrite a successful result got with'Clouds change frequency'
• Starting cloud shape : Set a value which will define how cloud dome shape will be at the beginning. If it is set to zero a random value will be choosen
• Dawn/Dusk intensity : Dawn/Dusk light intensity on clouds
• Clouds change rate : Check weather cloud density every X seconds
• Clouds change magnitude : When cloud density change, how big is that change
• Clouds change speed : How fast cloud density changes
• Clouds shape change speed : How fast clouds change their shape. It is affected also by the cloud speed in the 'Clouds/Wind' section
• Sun max intensity on clouds : Maximum cloud light intensity
• Light base : Minimum cloud light intensity
• Cloud dome height : height of the cloud dome gameobject
• Sky height : The lower the value the nearer the sky and clouds will be, also sky will become of darker blue
• Gamma clouds : Value used in case gamma color space is used to correct gamma colors. Set it to a lower value if you want brighter clouds in gamma space
• Cloud shadows strength : Strength of the cloud shadows
• Random Weather : Cloud density changes over time
• Follow dome : Enable if you want dome follow X and Z camera axis position.
• Update clouds : Define if want clouds change over time or stay static
• Use cloud shadows : Cast clouds shadows. Billboard trees are not affected correctly with this option enabled making the transition between normal and billboard trees wrong

Clouds/Sun

• Attenuation distance : Sun halo light attenuation distance on clouds. Increase it to make sun intensity reach clouds in longer distances, it sets the radius of the long sun light area effect. If want clouds in the horizon to be whiter increase this value
• Sun halo attenuation distance : Sun light attenuation near the Sun center. It sets the radius of the short sun light area effect
• Cloud Sun aura focus : The type of lighting progression for clouds,, by default is linear progression, the lower the higher will be the light progression
• Cloud Sun aura focus center : This is just an extra light progression value used for clouds at near distances from Sun.It sets the type of lighting progression, and affects specially the clouds at dusk/dawn, by default is linear progression, the lower the higher will be the light progression
• Cloud Sun aura focus dusk/dawn : It sets the type of lighting progression, and affects the clouds at dusk/dawn, by default is linear progression, the lower the higher will be the light progression.
• Sun aura intensity : Sun light intensity on clouds
• Sun aura intensity center : Sun light intensity on clouds for the 'Cloud Sun aura focus center' light progression, affecting specially the clouds at dusk/dawn./li>
• Cloud color : Color modifier for the cloud shader when Sun is at the top of the Sky
• Cloud color base : Color modifier for the cloud shader when Sun is at the horizon
• Aura color : Color of the light all around the Sun in the cloud dome at Dusk/Dawn
• Dusk/Dawn aura color : Color of the light all around the Sun in the cloud dome at Dusk/Dawn
• To red aura colo : Color modifier of the dawn/dusk color to go to a reddish color to the end. It defines the minimum color of Red, Green and Blue

Clouds/Moon

• Attenuation distance : Moon light attenuation distance on clouds. it sets the radius of the long moon light area effect"
• Attenuation distance center : Moon light attenuation distance on clouds for short distance from Moon. It sets the radius of the long moon light area
• Moon aura focus : The type of lighting progression, by default is linear progression, the lower the higher will be the light progression
• Moon aura focus center : This value affects mainly the cloud borders. The type of lighting progression, by default is linear progression, the lower the higher will be the light progression
• Moon aura focus halo : How focused is cloud moon aura attenuation. This sets an halo effect on clouds mainly the ones very near the moon. This affects mainly the cloud border illumination
• Moon aura intensity : Moon light intensity on clouds. Set it to a lower value if you want darker clouds at night.
• Moon aura intensity center : Moon light intensity on clouds, more focused. This affects the cloud border illumination
• Moon aura intensity halo : Moon light intensity on clouds, very focused around the moon. This affects the cloud border illumination
• Cloud density Moon Min. : Specifies the minimum cloud density value multiplied by the moon final intensity below, so a low cloud density becomes darker the lower is the value. This is a way to choose how low density clouds look at night without changing the maximum cloud density.
• Moon final intensity : Use this value to change the overall moon light intensity. Value multiplied to the final moon color in clouds which is calculated based on the moon phase. If moon phase is full moon the Y value will be used and if there is no moon the X value will be used. Is recommended have the X value a bigher or otherwise clouds will not be too dark and little defined
• Cloud color night : Color modifier for the cloud shader at night. Set it at grey color, around 148,148,148,255 if you want that clouds can only be seen at the borders and bright colors white if you want more visible clouds like use to be low clouds

Clouds/Wind

• Random cloud wind speed : Cloud wind speed changes over time. Cloud wind speed makes the clouds move
• Cloud wind intensity : How much cloud density affects wind. This value affects all the others below
• Cloud speed : Speed at which clouds move in the sky.
• Follow wind speed : Speed at which the dome rotates to match the wind direction, too fast can tool unrealistic
• Wind change rate : Check cloud movement changes every X seconds
• Wind change magnitude : When cloud movement change, how big is that change
• Wind change speed : How fast cloud movement changes
• Wind max speed : Max speed for the cloud movement
• Wind change frequency : How rare is that cloud movement changes

Wind

• Use wind : If enabled will make the wind rotate smoothly. It will need to have also the cloud updated option selected/li>
• Rotation frequency : How frequently (in seconds) wind direction changes just in the Y axis
• Rotation magnitude : How many degrees wind rotates in the Y axis every time there is a rotation change depending on the rotation frequency
• Rotation speed : When there is a new rotation change this value sets how fast it happens

Wind/Nature

• Change wind tree : If disabled will not apply the following tree/wind modifications. These modifications take into account how much cloud density affects wind on trees. It is also multiplied by a perlin noise value, and by cloud wind mod value
• Tree bending : Strength that wind bends trees.
• Tree speed : Speed that wind bends trees.
• Tree shaking : How much wind shakes tree leaves.
• Change wind grass : If disabled will not apply the following grass/wind modifications. These modifications take into account how much cloud density affects wind on grass. It is also multiplied by a perlin noise value, and by cloud wind mod value
• Grass bending : Amount that grass will bend due to wind
• Grass speed : Speed that wind blows through grass.
• Grass size : The areas of grass that are affected by wind all at once. For grass billboards 0.5 is a good value, if not billboards around 0.25

Tree/Grass/Terrain

• Terrain light intensity : Terrain Light Intensity modifier
• Tree leaves light intensity : Tree leaves illumination intensity for directional lights
• Tree leaves base cutoff : Define the trees alpha cutoff. A 1 value will make the tree without leaves, and 0 value will be just blocky pictures of leaves
• Tree bark light intensity : Tree bark illumination intensity for directional lights
• Tree billboard intensity : X is the reduction of tree billboard light intensity with cloud shadows option disabled. The Y is the reduction of tree billboard light intensity when using cloud shadows option.
• Grass light intensity : Grass illumination intensity for directional lights
• Grass billboard light intensity : Grass billboard illumination intensity for directional lights
• Tree dark distance : Trees become darker at more distance from camera, this can be useful for instance for lightnings at night, so that far trees at far distances do not get too illuminated. Its a vector3 value where X is the minimum darkness, Y is the distance after which trees become darker and Z value increase the Y value but this value decreases from day to night, so at daytime the start value would be higher/li>
• Tree cutoff distance : Trees at far distances can show leaves too thin that do not look very good, to fix that you can decrease the cutoff at higher distances from camera. This is a Vector2 value where X is the minimum value to be multiplied by the cutoff value in the shader and Y is the distance after which this cutoff decrease is applied, the higher the distance the lower the cutoff and the thicker the leaves
• Billboard halo : To avoid a white halo around billboard trees near dusk or dawn treeks must be darker in that time and the illumination must take longer. Increase this value if see a white halo around the billboard trees
• Tree prefab : Place a tree prefab to change the leaves and bark materials to the shaders used by this package. Myabe you will need to restart Unity so that they take effect
• Tree gameobject : Select a tree gameobject or prefab to be placed massively in terrain
• Use custom tree position : Use custom tree position instead the terrain position
• Number of trees : Number of trees to spread in the terrain
• Tree position : Place a x and z world position if you want the trees are placed around that position in a circle
• Tree radius : Trees radio around the choosen positon where trees can be placed
• Tree min/max angle : Minimum and maximum terrain angle to be placed the tree
• Tree min/max density : Minimum and maximum space between trees. A random value between min and max will be choosen.
• Tree min/max height : Minimum and maximum height to be placed a tree in the terrain
• Place random trees : Place random tree over the terrain/li>
• Remove last wood : Remove last created wood
• Remove all trees : Remove all random tree groups over the terrain

Seasons

• Season duration : Duration in days for every season
• Seasons cloud modifier : Use lower values for seasons with lower cloud density, even negative values

StarField

• Cosmos color : Color of sky at night. If gamma color is used is recommended a lower color value, around red 2,green 2, blue 3, alpha 5
• Saturation min/max : The minimum and maximum saturation on stars. Will check color intensity of the pixels of the starfield dome and if any is below the saturation level the pixel color intensity will be multiplied by the minimum saturation value, if its above will be multiplied by the maximum saturation value
• Saturation level : The higher the less stars will be visible. Will check color intensity of the pixels of the starfield dome and if any is below the saturation level the pixel color intensity will be multiplied by the minimum saturation value, if its above will be multiplied by the maximum saturation value
• Star intensity : The final intensity of the star is multiplied by this value
• Star offset speed : Speed at which the perlin noise texture changes.

Fog

• Use fog : Fow will depend heavily on the cloud density so that with clear sky there will not be fog unless is configured like that below
• Fog in clear sky : Disabled by default.Normally fog will depend on the cloud density, if this option is enabled fog will appear also in clear sky
  
• Static fog : Enable this setting if want fog does not change over time
• Day fog color
• Dawn/Dusk fog color
• Fog height : In case fog height is used this value sets the world height. There are two types of fog, normal and height fog, height fog is fog under the camera position which becomes denser as word position goes lower
• Fog height change : In case fog height mix is used this value sets a value from 0-1 where 0 is normal fog and 1 is height fog. This value changes randomly with the general fog frequency checks
• Fog height change max : Maximum value for fog height type. Is recommeded not to set it to 1, the maximum, so that there is also always a bit of normal fog in the ambient/li>
• Fog height chances : What chances there are so that in every frequency check the fog height changes from normal to height fog, it changes with a random intensity. If fails to change to fog height it will decrease fog height mix shader value. Fog height type is much harder to happen than normal fog, so a low value should be set
• Fog height density : In case fog height is used this value sets the fog density
• Unity fog start : If camera is near the start fog will be light if camera is near the fog end fog will be more dense. Giving a negative start will assure some fog where camera is
• Fog Light Multiplier : A vector2 value where the X is the multiplier for the moon light on height fog and Y the multiplier for the sun light for the height fog
• Fog End Random : Fog has a start and a linear end, this sets a starting fog end. A high fog end will make slighter cloud density for normal fog. Is recommeded set a fog value not too high and always have a bit of fog in ambient in cloudy days
• Fog end min/max. : Fog end changes randomly. The X value sets how low Unity fog end can be, the lower the more dense fog will be, if its too low cloud won't look very good. Fog end will also affect the cloud dome fog. The Y value sets the maximum fog end value.
• Change frequency : Frequency in seconds to check if fog end will change, changing in that way the fog density
• Fog chances increase : What chances there are so that in every frequency check the fog intensity is increased. The 'Seasons cloud modifier' will be added to this value
• Fog chances decrease : What chances there are so that in every frequency check the fog intensity is decreased. The 'Seasons cloud modifier' will be substracted to this value
• Fog change mag. : A Vector2 value where the X value is the fog increase magnitude in case a successful increase magnitude happens, and the Y value is the fog decrease magnitude
• Fog change speed : How fast fog end can change in every success check to change the fog.
• Fog density terrain : Fog density for for over terrain, a higher value will make density int errain lower
• Fog density sky : this vector2 is used as a range where the X value is when fog end is in min distance and Y value when is in the max distance This value affects how dense is fog at far distances like Sky, Cluds or Stars
• Fog density sky clear : 'fog density sky' is modified by the cloud density being 0 a cloudy day and 1 a clear sky, this value makes this difference more or less intense

Lights

• Change ambient light : If enabled ambient light intensity will change if sun light changes
• Min/Max ambient light : Min/Max ambient light intensity you wish to have in case Change ambient light option is enabled.
• Spot distance attenuation : The higher the less intense will become the light at longer distances
• Spot intensity multiplier
• Spot attenuation limit : The higher the less intense will become the light at longer distances
• Point intensity multiplier
• Point attenuation limitThis value sets the maximum intensity that a light can have near to its center. The higher the more intense can become a light near its center

Camera autorotation

• Camera auto rotation : if you want to camera moves to the sides automatically when camera does not have any rotation changes. This is needed to update billboards illumination changes
• Change frequency : How long you want to wait when camera does not have any rotation until the camera starts rotating to the sides automatically. This is needed to update billboards for illumination changes
• Use delta time :This should be enabled in case you want smooth illumination changes taking in consideration computer speed
• Max angle : Max angle to rotate automatically to the sides. This is needed to update billboards for illumination changes
• Auto rotation speed : Speed rate at which the rotation is done, set to a low value if do not want the rotation is noticed in game, too low values can lead to billboards not to be updated, that is why min in set to 0.005, values under that could make the billboards update fail sometimes
• Rotation direction

Next improvements very soon :

Dynamic Rain System

Fully customizable and fast rain system where rain angle will change depending on the wind direction using custom shader making rain rotate so that there is not just plain rain falling vertically but also on the diagonal depending on the wind force.

You specify with what cloud density rain can start.

You can change easily how you want exactly the rain is, making the type of rain that you prefer, change the image, select the color, define the length, the thickness, gravity speed, etc...

Custom particle system to make fast and massive rain splashes selecting in what surfaces you want to collide

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S4jotT1apiE

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eCFs2kCaYJQ

Made with Shuriken particle system and custom rain and particle splash shaders which multiply the rain density just needing a few particles. It was used 600 rain particles for a 60x100 area for the second video and 800 for the first one.

You can choose three different shaders for rain, three for rain splashes and three for rain water splashes, a normal shader, one that duplicates particle density and another that triplicates density.

For every collision you can set an area and how many splash particles are created in that area randomly, optimizing a lot the raining system as just with one collision can create many splash particles. You define the number and area size for the different types of surfaces.

You set the layers that want to be affected by the different types of splashes, like water layer for water rain splashes, or for instance you can define certain objects which are supposed to be of a harder material emit a more intense type of splash particles

Particles lighting

Spot and point lights will illuminate the rain particles affected by those lights so you can create a even more realist atmosphere for your game. Pic in pitch black night showing rain particles illuminated by spot light.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KXnKYLYDjpI

Dynamic Snow System

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ehUJFgYVdjA















Besides having a nice Shuriken snow particle system gameobjects already in game can be snow ready in one click selecting the gameobject layers you want to be affected. Snow will also accumulate in terrain, trees and grass

The snow accumulation depends mainly on the temperature, and can be set at what temperature snow can start accumulating in game and also will be affected greatly by the season so that in summer snow could be impossible to happen depending on how was configured

Lightning system

Make the clouds nicely illuminated by lightnings and configure it with values like the frequency and duration or set that just want to appear when is raining or at nights

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BzIBN4RqToA

Multiplayer

Though Force Of Nature already has the option to save the weather changes so that can be used in the next game session for multiplayer you need server to save the data and send clients what is changing. I will make a multiplayer authoritative setup using Lidgren library and data saved in mysql database.

This option will not be in the first release

Mobile

Though Force Of Nature is based on shaders which are fast to render i would need to check how works with Android and IOS devices and change what is needed for an fast and nice looking result

High defined clouds

There will be a new setting in the next update, very soon, to define the cloud definition. Can leave it to default value or change to any you wish

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CCZ9kmFJdAo#t=26

Wind moving objects

In next update, very soon, the wind will move any object you wish in the wind direction and taking in consideration the wind force

Update 1.2 for Force of Nature has been released.

- Has been updated to be used with Unity 5.4.1
- Works for deferred and forward rendering
- Snow update has been added, this is the description of the snow update :

• Realistic and highly configurable snow system for terrain, trees, grass and tree billboards to define exactly as you want snow
• Snow accumulates at a configurated rate when snowing and and dissapear also at a configured rate when temperature is above the temperature required to exist snow
• Can set parts of terrain where snow will have lower density. Useful to set no snow under bridges.
• Can specify how winds affects snow accumulation
• Can configure how altitude and affects snow
• Can make the gameobjects you wish as snow ready in one click. It uses layers to select which are snow ready.
• Can configure how snow is accumulated on trees

- You can change tree size for tree billboards and mesh trees

Instructions to use Force Of Nature with HTC VIVE :



Main camera origin as player
Set image effects on Main camera eye
In Manager - Skydome - G option is recommended to be set to -0.99 for the X and Y value as with htc vive Sun is more diffuse

 

Video of the real time cloud shadows shader, new feature i added for Unity5

Heavy rain

Lightnings

Rain to Snow

 

Rain to Snow

Cloud high defined, if you wish to change from default value

New temporal webpage have been created where you can see more info about the package

http://forceofnature.16mb.com/

 

This looks really good.

 

Ty, in game is even better as videos lose quality, mainly at night, like the stars twinkling is hard to be noticed in a video as in gameplay

 

This looks fantastic!!

Can Force of Nautre be used in a fast paced game, like a FPS or Car racing?

The fps on your old laptop was 24fps. I am just concerned, this asset can be used for making great looking outdoor scenes, but may slow down games that need high performance?

 

Ty, of course it can be used, i checked the difference of fps not using clouds, sky and stars and their mesh domes and it just improved 4fps

In a car game, the car will not go through the trees usually, you can easily use tree billboards mainly so game will go very fast and with good nature quality and even if car gets near trees there is no problem if you set the billboard start not too far.

The only thing that can slow down your game is if a slow computer is used and try to use just all tree meshes or too many thousands of tree meshes instead a reasonable mix of mesh and billboards, if you set in terrain not too many tree meshes the game will not slow down,. You can perfectly make awesome landscapes without too many meshes, actually in the tests most are billboards though there are still many mesh trees, though it can be used even less having a great quality, i just didnt need it for a fluid video. Also i did the test in a very open landscape, where there are lots of trees, most games do not need that like the tests i did for the Bootcamp demo, where the trees renderer are way less trees than in the other videos with a big landscape in the mountains.

If you plan to use your game for web platform this package will be perfect, as its not even 8mb.

Also a full package for rain will be added in the near future including support for spot and point lights illuminating those rain particles so you can create awesome scenes in your game like rain being illuminated by cars lights. Wind will move the rain particles horizontally, so rain and snow particles will change their angle depending on wind direction and intensity.

 

I like your asset very much. But I see you have another version you are working on. I like many features in Force of Nature Ultimate and don't want to miss out on them. I also don't want to buy Force-of-Nature, and then need to buy Force-of-Nature-Ultimate. Is the only way to avoid buying both assets, to wait for you to release the ultimate version?

 

I asked that also to the asset store team, as i wanted that buyers of the Force of Nature did not have to pay again the whole FoN Ultimate, just the difference, and they told me that it could be done but didnt specify how that is done, so i asked it again for a more concrete reply to confirm you how this is done.

 

This looks like the beginning of a great asset. Recommend that you focus on making it the be the best it can be rather than confusing people with an ultimate version. You seem to have a lot of custom shaders. How well does your system play with other assets? Does speedtree work with it ?

 

I will just update Force Of Nature, there will not be Ultimate version as Asset store does not have yet the option to buy a normal version and then buy a more advanced package just paying the difference, so as i don't think its fair someone buys the normal and then the ultimate again i just will update the current project and i will update with a rain, which will be available very soon, and snow particles, its a big package for rain and snow, and after that i will include the snow accumulation making your whole game snow ready in one click defining what you want or not to be included, then is when i will increase the price of the package.

I have created two files, for fog and for lights, so that you can just include in your own shaders the macros that are defined in those files, its very simple. There is no problem to be used with other systems, you can even deactivate parts of the package if you want to use it your own feature for some reason.

I have added a tool to insert objects like speedtree in terrain to make woods with the radius and density you wish, selecting in what angles of terrain you want that can be those trees placed, and also can select also in what height. I tested it with speedtrees, just have to add the speedtree to scene and use that gameobject for the tool. You just would have to add the macros i mentioned before to the speed tree shaders.

 

Rain

It is made with a rain and snow new package included in Force Of Nature.

Fully customizable and fast rain system where rain angle will change depending on the wind direction using custom shader making rain rotate so that there is not just plain rain falling vertically but also on the diagonal depending on the wind force.

You specify with what cloud density rain can start.

You can change easily how you want exactly the rain is, making the type of rain that you prefer, change the image, select the color, define the length, the thickness, gravity speed, etc...

Made with Shuriken particle system and custom rain and particle splash shaders which multiply the rain density just needing a few particles. It was used 800 rain particles for a 60x100 area

You can choose three different shaders for rain, three for rain splashes and three for rain water splashes, a normal shader, one that duplicates particle density and another that triplicates density.

For every collision you can set an area and how many splash particles are created in that area randomly, optimizing a lot the raining system as just with one collision can create many splash particles. You define the number and area size for the different types of surfaces.

You set the layers that want to be affected by the different types of splashes, like water layer for water rain splashes, or for instance you can define certain objects which are supposed to be of a harder material emit a more intense type of splash particles

 

New video showing rain and splashes particle lighting at night

 

New video : Lightnings

You can specify the chances and frequency so that a storm happens, the duration and how frequent lightnings appear in that storm and with what duration every lightning. Also can specity if just want lightnings start when there is rain or if just want it to be started at night. You can define up to three different thunder sounds that can played randomly in the storm, or just use the same sound every time.

 

New Video : Rain to Snow transition. Used 600/6000 snow particle emission rate/max using the triplicate particles shader.

 

New video: Rain to Snow Daytime with dynamic fog

 

New video: Ultra defined clouds, a whole night-day-night cycle video. New setting to set the cloud definition as you wish in the next update very soon

 

Hi all.

I have been testing Force of Nature head to head with Time of Day and my personal HD weather system (Olander's Realistic Weather which is provided free on the Unity forums). I did need a little assistance from NewMagicStudio to get my Persistent Time and Humidity linked in. It works and works very well. The results are stunning. Did I mention it actually works? haha! I do maintain over 90fps with the high rez meshes and settings for fantastic quality since I am designing in HD 1080p. The results are excellent.

Of note the weather here in Minnesota USA is rather dreary. I was checking out the sky and making my visual comparison to what Force of Nature can produce in game. Only the partly cloudy skies have trouble looking life-like. It is easy to understand why.....but the rest of the cloudy and sunny skies look very good.

The only issue I see at this point are the variables are a bit scattered to sync over multi-player. Multi-player does indeed work and I did test this with a simple Unity Network View with both player having Persistent Time sync'd to each other....which is tied into the Force of Nature Day/Night Cycle. I also tied in Humidity and both players see different cloud formations as would be expected in a randomized scenario. This, as I see it, will be an issue in Multi-Player. Unless the data like Rain and Snow Emission Rates and Triggers (Flags), Lightning Flashes, Thunder triggering can be synchronized then it will break immersion. Example being the Players are role playing and make mention of the sound of Thunder and a Flash of Lightning in the sky....if the other players do not hear and see this then it is simply random and breaks the 'Environmental Realism' of being in the SAME landscape. The exact same sound or location of the flash is not necessary....just the triggering of the events.

It seems Force of Nature does need a little work in this area but I see no issue with this from the creator. There is passion behind this system.

Perhaps like others here I am awaiting the rain and snow update to give another performance testing.

Cheers

 

Thank you Olander, yes, the system is very fast as it is mostly shader based

Mutliplayer is easy to setup as you can see in code what variables need to be saved to a database, though the system saves them to player prefs, knowing what variables must be saved makes the task almost done using databases. Any i plan to make an example with Lidgren and using databases so that it is even easier.

The package will always be improved, i really feel passion about it yes, i always want to get even more stunning effects, i like what i do and pay attention to what users want to include them in future updates

 

The next update has been uploaded to be approved by the Asset team, some of the new features for the raiin, snow and lightning system are :

- A highly customizable and full rain/snow and lightning system to create exactly the type of rain you want using a high number of options
- Rain and snow are nicely illuminated by spot and point lights
- Create special rain and snow effects like rotating some particles in the wind opposite direction to create a more irregular rain
- Stunning lightning storms with more than ten thunder sounds available which will be choosen randomly
- Force of Nature uses a custom and highly optimized rain splash particle generator which allows to greatly reduce the computer load creating a high number of splash particles
- Force of nature uses two special rain and snow shaders, which duplicate and even triplicate the rendering number of rain or snow particles and splashes, creating this way even a higher number of splash particles
- Up to eight great rain sound clips
- Wind can move objects in a realist way, see all kind of objects like papers, etc.. move nicely with wind direction
- You can choose the cloud definition, to have soft clouds or sharper clouds with a very high definition

Next update, very soon, will be an awesome snow shader accumulation and make all objects in your project snow ready in one click. After this update price will be increased.

 

New Video about the uploaded update features waiting for approval, wind moving objects in the wind direction

 

The rain, snow, wind and lightning update has been already approved

 

Is it possible to change the time of day via script? didn't see any mention of time system above. Thanks

 

Yes, it is possible, you find how to do it in the instructions in the asset.

 

I want to remember this asset :

- Use forward rendering, not deferred, and it has always been described like that in the Asset store description. I plan to try to make work deferred in the update after the snow update, and also vertical lightnings.
- It does not conflict with other terrain shaders, as i said before you just have to include the fog macro and also the light macro, as it is explained in the instructions included in the asset.

 

Hai,
Here the weather pack you have been released is really good and also I searched for such packs.
Actually my doubts is, will there come any problems with frame rate? and also about the memory issue.
Its a query for some clarification.

Youtube Channel:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCyY8yKnal_WXtECoU76b1eA

Facebook Fan Page:
https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100010085190232

Asset Store Link:
https://www.assetstore.unity3d.com/en/#!/publisher/13387

 

As Olander has reported in a nessage in this thread before it is very fast as it is shader based mainly, he reported 90fps, it depends on the game you need, mainly how much vegetation you want in your game, and with what quality. It depends also on how many rain and snow particles you want and how fast is your pc.

 

For questions send me an email, the buyers get my email. FoN has no errors, i test it with an empty project before releasing it, so it works fine. The editor window you show is not showing the variables as it should, so you must have changed something. Try making an empty project and follow the instructions and you will see as it is shown fine.

 

Yes, I have found my err, your Force Of Nature runs beautifully as delivered,
(see: FarNiché to NewMagic Studio Conversation).

 

Has anyone tested this on a mobile platform? I would be curious, even if they tried it with reduced quality or limited effects. I need to find a solid sky/weather system for my studio's VR experiences over cardboard and gearVR. It seems like the only competitors in this space are FoN, Time of Day and Sky Master.

I need to make sure I can get at least 60 fps on mobile so I'm fine with stripping down whatever system I test. Time of Day states that they support all platforms along with VR hardware, but I like that FoN is built starting with Unity 5, along with its procedural approach, 1/3 file size of ToD and includes a weather/nature system. As for Sky Master, I like how you can push the atmospheric effects into the surreal but in general it doesn't seem like a solid build.

But I see no mention from this forum or in the asset store page of FoN about mobile use. Should I assume it's primary for PC and not a good fit for mobile use, even without the more resource intensive areas of the system, ie rain/snow/trees?

 

I don't see much of activity on this asset. I am currently using Unistorm, but am looking for other options for a good weather system that has TOD and snow features. I see in this thread you plan on supporting snow and terrain snow buildup (a feature that got lost in Unistorm from Unity 4 to Unity 5). But that was last summer. Where are you at with it now? Could you please summarize where you are at with the updates for this asset? Is this a dead project with no more forthcoming updates? I ask because it seems like you planned on doing an update, but there is relatively little activity going on. Your asset does indeed look promising. I just don't want to invest $90USD only to find issues and no updates. I can see you respond to support requests, but I would like to know how serious you are with updating and maintaining this asset. Unity 5 needs a solidified TOD/Weather System and I think you have a great start here. But there is just not much activity in the thread, or your FB page ATM.

 

The creator does seem to answer pertinent questions, but it seems that the asset is set as is.
Here are a couple of videos I made somewhat recently.
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLlTdyL4YTnxmZLg3CgYNsaE69VnKNj9vD

 

I plan to release the snow update, i planned to release it in September, but i was just too busy after summer. I will finish it next time i have some free days, hope that can be next month. Anyway i reply any answer if you find any issue.

 

Hi

I am very interested in your product, but I would like to know a few things before you buy it.

1) In the options "Lighting-> Enviroment Lighting-> Ambient Source" Can Unistorm use Skybox or Gradient?

2) Can set parameters to change in real time the values of "Ambient Intensity" and "Reflection Intensity"?

Regards

 

Snow update is very near now, snowed mountains video. Fps shown using a 6600k processor and r9 390 ati graphic card.

 

1) In the options "Lighting-> Enviroment Lighting-> Ambient Source" Can Unistorm use Skybox or Gradient?

I think you meant Force of Nature instead Unistorm. You can use Color or Gradient, though just the sky color is changed in script. Just rendersettings.ambientlight is changed, you set the minimum and maximum values you want for ambient light relatives to the sun light intensity

2) Can set parameters to change in real time the values of "Ambient Intensity" and "Reflection Intensity"?

You set the min and max parameters for ambient intensity at start. After game starts just ambient light color changes in real time, it changes as sun light changes depending in the daytime.

 

Update 1.2 for Force of Nature has been released.

- Has been updated to be used with Unity 5.4.1
- Works for deferred and forward rendering
- Snow update has been added, this is the description of the snow update :

• Realistic and highly configurable snow system for terrain, trees, grass and tree billboards to define exactly as you want snow
• Snow accumulates at a configurated rate when snowing and and dissapear also at a configured rate when temperature is above the temperature required to exist snow
• Can set parts of terrain where snow will have lower density. Useful to set no snow under bridges.
• Can specify how winds affects snow accumulation
• Can configure how altitude and affects snow
• Can make the gameobjects you wish as snow ready in one click. It uses layers to select which are snow ready.
• Can configure how snow is accumulated on trees

- You can change tree size for tree billboards and mesh trees

 

Instructions to use Force Of Nature with HTC VIVE :



Main camera origin as player
Set image effects on Main camera eye
In Manager - Skydome - G option is recommended to be set to -0.99 for the X and Y value as with htc vive Sun is more diffuse

 

Force of Nature will have a 20% discount for a limited time soon, as soon as asset store approves it.

 

Snow increase and decrease video. Speed can be customized and has been increased to show the progression in short time.

 

25% OFF FOR A LIMITED TIME

 

WEBGL demo please

 

Yes, i need web demo

 

I made a demo, you can download it here : https://drive.google.com/file/d/16TpGv9wXbsy-mZpZwjSKOJ3fTROF39IZ/view?usp=sharing

 

doesn't work unity DLL missing

 

Fixed it : https://drive.google.com/file/d/16TpGv9wXbsy-mZpZwjSKOJ3fTROF39IZ/view?usp=sharing

 

Unity asset store rules have changed and decided to deprecate my asset without any previous warning or time to change it before being deprecated, i have to meet the new asset store requirements and have it approved so dont know how long it will be deprecated

 

My asset is back with a sample scene so that all setup is done for you

 

Soon will remove my asset from the Asset Store, you can buy it in Cubebrush using this link http://cbr.sh/80ik6k